


Missing Something?

by Eleanor



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-09-24
Updated: 2006-09-24
Packaged: 2017-11-19 23:09:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/578630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eleanor/pseuds/Eleanor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam/Jack.  Every so often, her finger just felt bare.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Missing Something?

**Author's Note:**

> This didn’t quite go in the direction I intended it to go, but I like it anyway. It was one of the first things that popped into my head when I saw this prompt table.

**Title:** Missing Something?  
 **Fandom:** Stargate SG-1  
 **Characters:** Jack, Sam, little bit of Daniel  
 **Prompt:** [3 - 001 - Finger](http://returnofpiper.livejournal.com/249613.html)  
 **Word Count:** 1531  
 **Rating:** PG  
 **Summary:** Sam/Jack. Every so often, her finger just felt bare.  
 **Author's Notes:** This didn’t quite go in the direction I intended it to go, but I like it anyway. It was one of the first things that popped into my head when I saw this prompt table.

Sam sat at her workbench, staring at her hands. She absentmindedly rubbed the fingers of her right hand over her left ring finger. She had very rarely worn a ring on that finger; even during her two previous engagements, her rings spent much of their time in boxes. Just another consequence of the job. So most of the time, she didn’t pay much attention to her bare ring finger. Every so often, however, her finger just felt bare.

She noticed it after her engagement to Jonas Hanson ended. Jonas’s proposal had been the stereotypical romantic engagement. Dinner at a fancy restaurant, and after feeding her chocolate cake for dessert, he had reached across the table, taken his hands in hers, and asked her to spend the rest of her life with him.

Sam definitely didn’t miss that ring. At first, it had felt perfect. But after a while, every time she put on the ring, she wondered if it was right for her. It seemed too big, too gaudy, too large and fancy for her.

There must have been something to the idea that proposals go well with food, because Pete’s proposal had also involved a meal. Less fancy than Jonas’s proposal. Pete clearly knew Sam much better than Jonas had. Or perhaps Sam had just changed in those years, she really didn’t know. That proposal was also different because she didn’t jump at the chance to say yes.

She should have paid more attention to that instinct. Pete was a wonderful man. A good man. He probably still was – as far as she knew, her hand of death hadn’t touched him. But Pete wasn’t right for her. She knew it before she put on the ring. She knew it every time she put on the ring. It took her some time to figure it out, but she realized she was more comfortable when her finger was bare than when she was wearing Pete’s ring.

But now her finger just felt bare. Like there should be something on it. She was still staring at her finger, ignoring all her work, when Daniel appeared in her doorway.

“Missing something, Sam?” Daniel asked with a smile as he walked up to her workbench and sat down across from her.

Sam looked up, startled, and curled her fingers into gentle fists, hiding her bare fingers. “No, no, nothing at all,” she responded with a slight smile.

“Well you look kind of lost in thought,” he responded, watching her carefully. “That’s not like you, well, not when you’re not looking at some artifact or complicated scientific equation. Everything ok?”

She nodded and smiled at Daniel, trying to be reassuring. “Yeah, yeah it is. Really.”

“Well, if you want to talk sometime, you know where to find me,” he said, reaching across the table to brush his fingers against her hand. “Want to grab dinner tonight? We both eat too many meals here as it is.”

“Tonight? Oh, I…” she trailed off as another figure appeared in her doorway. “General!” she said, unable to stop the smile that spread across her face.

Daniel turned around, and the smile spread across his face as well. “Jack!” he said, standing. “What are you doing here? I didn’t know you were going to be in Colorado.”

“Oh, you know. Flew in for some meetings,” Jack replied, making a flying motion with his hand. He leaned against the doorway, clearly much happier in his BDUs as compared to his usual dress uniform. “What are you two up to?”

“I just asked Sam if she wanted to get off base and have dinner tonight,” Daniel began. “We should make it a group thing. Get the old team back together.”

“I like it,” Jack responded. “We should barbeque. Not so many opportunities to grill in the backyard in my little DC apartment. And I’m happy to volunteer Carter’s house for the occasion.”

“My place, sir?” Sam responded with a grin.

“Sure, why not?” he said with a shrug and a sly smile. “And Danny, invite Mitchell and Vala too. Don’t want to leave anyone out, after all. Besides, those two can give me the real scoop on what the rest of you have been up to.”

Daniel laughed. “Sounds good. I’ll go find them and Teal’c and let them know,” he said as he headed for the door. “Oh, Jack,” he began, turning back. “How long are you in town for?”

Jack shrugged. “Oh, a couple of days, give or take. Depends on the meetings.”

“Good,” he responded. “Teal’c’s been eager to discuss some recent movies with you,” he said as he left the lab.

Sam started playing with her ring finger again, slightly nervously, as Jack turned and focused his eyes on her. “Hey,” he said with a grin.

“Hi,” she responded with a smile.

“So you didn’t tell Daniel that I was here?”

She smiled and shook her head. “It didn’t come up,” she said, still twisting her finger.

“Missing something?” he asked, inclining his head towards her hand.

She laughed. “Daniel asked me the same thing.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a plastic ring with a giant purple plastic “diamond.” She played with it in her fingers.

“Not wearing it?” he asked, sitting down across from her. “I feel like we’ve had this conversation before,” he said, looking around her lab. “And I remember how things turned out with that ring that you didn’t wear,” he said softly.

“Jack…” she began. The past twenty-four hours had been a whirlwind for Sam Carter. She hadn’t expected him to show up on her doorstep last night. She hadn’t expected him to take her out to her favorite little Chinese restaurant. Heck, she hadn’t even realized that restaurant had table service. She just loved their delivery. And she certainly hadn’t expected this ring

They had both had a little too much to drink, and had been joking around, when all of a sudden, he asked her to marry him. The words just sort of came out of his mouth. And she had been speechless and he had just smiled at her over the uneaten fortune cookies. And then he had gotten up and run to the lobby, returning with this ring from a vending machine.

At the time, it had seemed funny and romantic and perfect. A proposal after a lovely dinner. But today, today she wondered if perhaps it was too spontaneous, more a result of the alcohol and the atmosphere than anything else.

“Sam, I can practically hear the gears turning in your head,” Jack said, interrupting her musing. “And considering you’re _always_ thinking, that’s saying a lot,” he said with a half smile. “But before you say anything…” he trailed off as he reached into his pocket. He set a small jewelry box in front of her. “I ordered this weeks ago. I intended to actually give it to you when I proposed. But, well, you were smiling at me last night, and I just couldn’t wait. But I promise,” he said, as he opened the box to reveal the diamond ring inside. “It wasn’t as spur of the moment as you think.”

As he opened the box, she looked up and grinned. She opened her mouth to speak, but he held up a finger. “And don’t ask me to see the receipt. You’ll just have to trust me. I really did order this weeks ago. I just couldn’t pick it up until today. I truly do want to marry you, Sam.”

He knew her all too well. Sam looked down at the plastic ring in her hand, the beautiful diamond engagement ring on the table, then looked up at Jack. With a trademark Sam Carter grin, she held out her left hand to him, wiggling her fingers.

“Should I take that as a yes?” he asked. When she nodded, he beamed at her. He plucked the ring out of the box and slid it onto her ring finger.

“Perfect,” she said with a grin.

Jack leaned across the table and captured her chin with his hand. He gently stroked her cheek with his thumb and then leaned in to kiss her. After a moment that Jack found all too short, she pulled back.

“Jack! The cameras!” she said, a shocked look on her face.

He laughed at her horrified look and gave a thumbs up sign to the camera. “I’m pretty sure Landry’s watching. I warned him what I was planning so he wouldn’t send you guys off world last minute and ruin everything.”

“You really did plan this,” she said, a huge grin spreading across her face.

“Yep. And then completely abandoned the plan. But I think the end result’s pretty good.”

Sam looked down at the sparkling ring on her finger and grinned. “I agree,” she replied. “Though volunteering my house for a barbeque?”

“Come on, where else were we going to have it? I’ll cook and I promise to help you clean up.”

“You will help clean up, but Cam’s cooking. I’ve seen what happens when you get near a grill.”

He laughed and swooped in for another quick kiss. “Fair enough.”


End file.
